Contact

Dr. Appelt is a professor of Neuroscience in the department of Bio-Medical Sciences.
She has served as the director for Basic and Clinical Neuroscience course in the DO
curriculum and the director of the Neuroscience course in the Biomedical master program.
Dr. Appelt lectures on neuroanatomy and participates in neuroanatomy labs in the DO
SPOM course, Physician Assistant Studies, and Psychology program. In addition, Dr.
Appelt is the director for the dual degree DO/PhD. program in Cellular and Molecular
Biology designed to develop physician-scientist.

Education

Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Hahnemann University
PhD, Drexel University College of Medicine
BS, Juniata College

Research

Dr. Appelt has done extensive research in the field of aging and is recognized for
her work on Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Appelt is the director of PCOM’s Biological Imaging
Facility and is investigating pathogen involvement as a trigger for developing Alzheimer’s
disease. She is particular interested in understanding the effects Chlamydia pneumoniae
and HSV exert on the central nervous system that result in the neuropathology observed
in Alzheimer’s disease. Her laboratory uses high resolution electron microscopy, confocal
microscopy and epifluorescent microscopy to study cellular structures.

Awards

American Society for Cell Biology-Glenn Foundation Award for Outstanding Research
in Aging (1996)

Professor of the Year 2008 – Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine

2002- Induction of Alzheimer's Disease-like Pathology in the Brains of Young, Non-Transgenic,
BALB/c Mice Following Infection with Chlamydia pneumoniae: A Model for Late Onset/Sporadic
Alzheimer's Disease: Society for Neurosciences

2003-Chlamydia pneumoniae Infection: A Trigger for Alzheimer’s disease: Lankenau Institute
for Medical Research

2005-Neuropathological entities of Alzheimer's Disease are triggered following infection
of neuronal cells with Chlamydophila (Chlamydia) pneumoniae" Drexel University Medical
School

2008- Think Tank on Dementia: Eastern Pennsylvania Geriatrics Society

2008- Current Hypotheses of Alzheimer’s Disease: Should We Be Looking Outside The
Box?: AOA

NIH/R15: (5/01/01-06/30/03) Co-investigator; Immunosenescence and Chlamydia Pneumoniae”
Foundation for Research into the Diseases of Aging (6/01/99-7/01/2003) Co-investigator;
Investigation of Chlamydia pneumoniae in Diseases of the Aging